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Braving the Ngong Ping cable car - or not
http://www.zhongnanhaiblog.com/web/articles/99/1/Braving-the-Ngong-Ping-cable-car---or-not/Page1.html
By Saul Symonds
Published on May 23, 2008
 
Back in 2006, during the trial run, one cabin collided with the station, and the whole contraption was suspended leaving a number of people trapped in their cabins for hours. Official opening date was pushed back, and once the service got off the ground, there was the rather worrying incident in June of last year in which one car fell to the ground, (which the government referred to as the “dislodgement incident”).
HONG KONG - The truly adventurous traveler to Hong Kong, those who enjoy fast-paced, high-adrenaline thrills, might like to try out the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, a 5.7 km cable car journey, located on Lantau Island. Some might believe the Ngong Ping 360 to be dull in comparison with sky diving or bungee-jumping, but I beg to differ.

 

Back in 2006, during the trial run, one cabin collided with the station, and the whole contraption was suspended leaving a number of people trapped in their cabins for hours. Official opening date was pushed back, and once the service got off the ground, there was the rather worrying incident in June of last year in which one car fell to the ground, (which the government referred to as the “dislodgement incident”). Luckily, no one was inside it.

 

Again, service suspension, followed by resumption of the journey, and again, earlier this year, passengers were trapped inside their cabins.

 

At a Legislative Council meeting today, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development assured the public that mechanical wear and tear was not to blame for the latest embarrassment. Instead, it would appear, improper belt tension let to the dislodgement, (that word again), of driving belts and incorrect separation distance between cabins, which in turn led to the whole device to be shut down by the monitoring system.

 

The Hong Kong government has been working hard to promote tourism to the New Territories, with most visitors to the SAR concentrating their stay around Victoria Harbour and a few outlying islands. Lantau's tourism is boosted by Hong Kong Disneyland, the Big Buddha and Ngong Ping 360 amongst other attractions.

 

And though the cable car's image has been heavily tainted for locals, there is a good chance that visitors to the SAR would be unaware of of the black spot on the image of Hong Kong it has become. The official website for the cable car (www.np360.com.hk) describes it as “one of Hong Kong's 'must see' attractions”.

 

All assurances aside, including the Secretary For Commerce and Economic Development's statement today that the car has an average reliability of 99 percent, it would take a better man than myself to brave this ride.